SILENC
SILENCE
The trees are swaying. Liza can hear the rustle of the
leaves. But it cannot hide the voices of her parents quarreling in their room.
It has been like that since the day her mom discovered that her dad has another
family.
“What else is new?”
The glow of the moon cannot veil the gloominess of the house in the
middle of nowhere. It has been six years since that night.
Liza can still remember vividly the look on her dad’s face when she and
her mom surprised him and his other family in the house he was renting for
them.
“Imagine I have sisters whom I do not know.” “Not just one but two.”
She smiled. A smile that cannot mask the hurt in her eyes. It pained her
that her dad chose to have another family.
“Why is he not contented with us? Mom loves him. I love him. Uhmm. Used
to love him. Not anymore.”
Her mom.
She was a beautiful, elegant lady when dad married her. She was just
nineteen when he asked for her hand. Mom did not like dad. She thought dad was
just after her inheritance. It was grandpa who liked dad. He was adamant that
they be married. He thought dad was an angel who will look after mom. Well, he
was wrong. He had proven grandpa wrong when he started an affair with that
woman.
Well, there were instances in the past when one could mistake dad’s
actions for love. I admit he had made many sacrifices for mom …for me before
that night. In the end he gave up. He gave up easily. I was only sixteen then.
“Don’t tell me that it’s nothing. I saw you. We saw you.”
“You brought Liza?” You shouldn’t have brought her.”
“Why? So your image of a good and adoring father won’t be stained?”
“It’s not that Margareth. I am afraid for Liza. She is still young.”
“She is old enough to know that her dad is not faithful to her mom.”
“I am so sorry Margareth. But let us spare Liza. She is only a child.”
“She is not a child anymore. Six is old enough to know that her dad is
not adorable after all.”
Silence.
“Are you going to leave her?”
“You know I can’t do that now Margareth. Sylvia is already carrying my
child.”
“You bastard!” Tears. More tears.
I saw blood not tears. I kept it to myself. Red. Everything was red. No.
Those were tears not blood. No. They were blood. Stop it! Just stop! I screamed
but it was only the walls that silently mocked me. I stopped screaming. I
stopped talking. Even to them. Dad. Mom. My teachers. My friends. The walls.
But the walls had heard my silent scream for silence. I continued yelling
without words for ten years. Then I saw red again. In every corner of my
parents’ room, I SAW RED. I saw blood. Then tears. Tears from my own eyes. Then
SILENCE.
I have gone to the other room. My parents’ room. Mom is still elegant.
Dad is handsome. Though, they quarrel most of the times, they lie in bed
together at night. I like looking at them when everything is quiet. They are
not moving even when the leaves are rustling against the windowpane. They could
not move anymore. They are not bothered with the glow of the moonlight that
passes through the windows. They are asleep… together. The way they should be.
In SILENCE.
